iMovie

What is it?

Plug in virtually any digital camcorder and iMovie starts importing your video. Then iMovie helps you organize your video just as you organize photos: by putting everything in one central location and grouping video clips according the date they were taken. So it’s easy to find the clips you’re looking for — whether to watch or to edit. Don’t have a camcorder? You can still use iMovie: It displays video you captured on your still camera and imported into iPhoto.

How can you use it?

Create a timeline that moves: Present a succession of historical events in a photo slide show with music from that period.
Make your movie morph: For science class, present the stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Create a photo slide show with images you grab from bing.com.
Demonstrate things you can’t bring to class: Videotape feeding time for lions or gorillas at the zoo. or capture the physics at play in a local skate park with still photos or video.
Share the classics in a fresher way: shoot video of various students reciting a phrase or two from a shakespearean sonnet. string them together in a movie, and suddenly all eyes are on the screen. The whole class hangs on every famous word.
Try a different angle for math: For math class, share all the ways that angles appear in everyday life, from a city skyscraper to the painted lines in the school parking lot to the countless angles at play on a pool table.
Start a lively debate: Frame a debate topic by sharing the pros and cons of an issue with photos.
Can be used over any age group and with any curricular application.

Why would you use it?

Easy to enhance: Add variety to movies with black and white, artistic, mirror, motion, and other visual effects. add pan and zoom moves to still photos for a professional look.
Easy to share: share your movie on the Web. Follow step-by-step prompts to help you quickly upload to YouTube, Facebook, and other video-sharing sites.
PRO: Engage, Entertain, Educate
PRO: Ease of use
PRO: Students can focus on the content and not the videography
PRO: Video tutorials are built right into iMovie
CON: May take a bit of time and patience for the teacher to introduce how to use the software to the students - especially those not familiar with Macs.
Standards: 1 a-d, 2 a-d, 3 a-d, 4 a-d, 5 a-d, 6 a-d

References